Unless Santa Clara steps up it sounds like the fat lady is starting to warm up Remember, the light at the end of the tunnel is usually a train.
"Assistant City Manager Mark Linder said negotiators ``were not able to reach an agreement that made fiscal sense for'' the city and owners of the San Jose Sharks" ... I guess this does actually mean "no kickbacks were promised". Crap! Come on Santa Clara, show them what is the true capital of Silicon Valley, as opposing to that oversized village with corrupted government!
It's Santa Clara or nothing at this point,and unless SSV can pull a rabbit out of it's collective hat, we'll have plenty of time to watch the World Cup next summer.
So this means that a long shot option for a 'downtown' stadium is dead in the water. I suspect the deal breaker probably has a lot more to do with reducing short term losses (Spartan subsidies) than getting a sweet deal on stadium construction. I'll start ducking for cover from 'sky parts' if the next e-mail from SSV says 'That was it folks, there is nothing going on with Santa Clara...' On the other hand, I will be willing to pony up some money to pay for a tell-all from SSV so we can know who the villains and the champions really were in this struggle. (Edit: So the letter came so fast I can still edit this!) So the sky is not falling yet...
If Santa Clara can pull off a deal, I'll buy you two a drink, or lunch/dinner. Still keep the faith until there's an announcement...
Maybe we should show up at the council meeting tomorrow demanding the city drops the suit against Santa Clara County if the county can come up with a plan for a stadium at the fairgrounds. Since the city can't seem to put a plan together for a stadium it would only be to San Jose's benefit to let the County do it (if they can). And we could tell them what they can do with their "Jazz Hands".
This sucks. I think there's still hope, but it's quickly fading into the sunset. I'm afraid the league might piggy-back good news coming out of Kansas City with bad news coming out of San Jose to temper the negative reaction. I want to be positive, but again, this sucks...
GRRRRRRRRRRR... this is really, really bad. Well... we knew it... AEG gave us (the city, the team, the fans) a couple of years of warning... we waited and waited... Well... we are done with the city. Not a single penny from my pocket will go to SJ.
I'm dissapointed about: The City: what a lack of vision. Politicians. SSV: Good intentions, poor execution. Last year their angel investor was a guy without money, this year, it was all a "mistery and a secret" until it was to late to react. Poor execution. The Fans: Lack of organization. We didn't participate of this deal. A few souls (200 out of 20,000) were visible. MLS: With movements like this, this league will NEVER make it in the USA. AEG: While they didn't sell the team last year, they didn't help us much in terms of getting potential owners to the table. SJ State: The WORST. ALL THEY HAVE TO DO is to negotiate a better deal for SPARTAN.
How is it that SVSE escapes your wrath? After all, it is entirely possible - in fact, quite probable - that their requesting too much in operational subsidies and/or contributing too little in stadium construction funding played some role in an agreement not getting done.
If Santa Clara can get this going... fa-vuck!! I'll be buying more than just one dinner and rounds of drinks! (Er... I'm saying that I would spend a lot o' cash in Sa.Clara, not buy a round.) Damn, my fingers are bleeding from crossing them for so damn long.
I would say this sucks ONLY if the chunk of land involved was the one that was supposed to be for the Baseball park, not the parcel between Park and W. San Carlos along Montgomery and this was the only investor involved... This is just a bummer man, and I'm more of an IBleedTeal than a Goodsport. I still think that we're completely hosed if we're relying on the San Jose City Council to keep this team here.